Liminal Slump
Dylan W.
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The photograph was taken in March of 2022. Having entered High School and transitioned out of Middle School while also being completely isolated from my peers for a period of roughly 15 months, I struggled to form connections and bonds with my peers during my sophomore year. The combination of both a workload I was unfamiliar with (juxtaposed to the minimal work assigned during distant learning) and my extended absence and time not spent spent developing social skills in an environment with classmates weighed heavily on my mental state. These sudden changes in my life, as well underlying self-image issues I had developed with during my time in isolation, made the time in my life during which I conceived this photograph the most difficult time in my life.
The existence of the photograph is nevertheless one of my proudest artistic creations because I was able to express myself without burdening or troubling my family or friends with my issues during a time in which everybody was struggling with different issues as a result of the pandemic. My artistic process was extremely spur of the moment; it was taken as part of a photography unit in an art class. I didn't think much of it. My photography partner/classmate and I felt it may be a good idea for a photo to climb up to a window and capture a quick photo - we needed to meet a quota for the assignment. I didn't think about the photo for weeks.
When another collaborative assignment came up in the same class, involving minimal editing of hue, saturation, and color balance to enhance photography, my classmate and I realized the photograph's potential for emotional appeal and impact. By skewing the color balance of my body, and doing the same for the rest of the photo (the setting/background) I created an impression of isolation, loneliness, and parallelism to the world around me. I was able to reflect my feelings of the time, that the rest of the world had recovered from their stagnant social skills and connections as a result of the pandemic, yet I hadn't. Like I was falling behind. However, the project and the past feelings it reminds me of have reminded me how much progress I have made since this period in my life, and that I was never sitting still or falling behind others; everybody dealt with the pandemic and its implications at their own pace, in their own way.
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Exploring my creativity impacts my life in that it gives me an outlet to concentrate my emotions into, and pinpoint my feelings and emotions into an expressive and impactful piece. Instead of letting my negative mental state effect those around me, I let them come to the surface in my own way.
